Science

Bay Area Parks Feeling Bite of Sequester

Bay Area National Park sites are trimming hours, reducing maintenance and leaving unfilled positions open to make up for the across-the-board 5 percent sequestration cuts that hit this week.

The John Muir Historic Site in Martinez, the Eugene O’Neill House in Danville and Fort Point at the Presidio all have trimmed their hours.

Howard Levitt with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area said some sites, such as Muir Woods and the Marin Headlands, remain open full time, but visitors will see service reductions.

"The frequency of, for example, trash removal, restroom cleaning, road work and trail work will be less than it was. We’re looking at, and have actually already implemented, some reduced hours in some of our visitor facilities."

Park officials say these across-the-board cuts are different from earlier budget challenges, because they leave no room to shift resources to where they’re needed most.